So I guess you guys would like an explanation of what went on between me and Chris in the second race in Qatar. I'll try and keep it brief and just give you the new down of what it looked like from the eyes inside my helmet.

It all turned pretty pear shaped from the beginning of the warm up lap! I had slight problem with my bike which it was unable to take me any further than the end of pit lane which delegated me to start the race from pit lane. I actually didn't think it was going to be possible to make my starting position of 18^th any worse but I was obviously wrong. So not only was I taking of from pit-lane but they somehow delayed my release which meant by the time I was exiting pit-lane the rest of the field were rounding the first turn.

By about lap three I'd finally caught my first victim and I continued making my way through the field. Substantially slower than I would have liked. By the time we reached half race distance I was approaching a bunch of four riders the first one was Steve Martin so I quickly took him. The next was Walker and than another two guys in front of him. I sat and waited for almost two laps for the most appropriate opportunity to slip by. Just as we arrived at the really tight hairpin the guy up front of the pack ran in really deep and extremely wide fighting to stay on the track the next guy just seemed to follow. It actually looked like Chris was going to follow and the pearly gates had just open up and rolled the red carpet out for me to pass. This however was not the entire case. The gate had only half opened up. The first two were definitely out of the picture but Chris had the same idea as me, except he was much deeper in the corner and he needed a much more aggressive manoeuvre. I know the TV angle doesn't do me any favours but if you look close enough you will see right at the last second he decided to square the corner off. Which put him right in my path; under normal circumstances we might have just rubbed which is generally no big deal. But because our speeds were so different our bikes got hooked up. Chris's front brake cable got hooked on my rear brake peddle surprising the shit out of me removing my bike from between my legs and taking Chris with it. So it was just a real shitty situation just when we were right of the verge of points so basically rounding off a completely disastrous weekend for the both of us. I was so happy to be getting out of that place and getting back to Europe.

By the end of the following week I'd pretty nutted the flu, and was able to get back on with life again.

My plan was to catch a plane up to Holland get my bus out of storage and then take a nice leisurely drive down to Valencia for the next test. The only problem was when I arrived on Monday at my bus we discovered that it had a blow-out, and more than likely there was more to come. These things seem to all expire at the same time, so replacing just the one tyre wasn't the go. The main problem was getting the tyres let alone one, the quickest we could get some in Europe was ten days.

So I gave the boys from Cinton a call in England and the said they could overnight them - perfect! Except for some reason there was a back log of cargo at Dover and they were going to be delayed overnight. Or maybe the delivery driver just fell a sleep and missed the boat!!!

It was now Wednesday and Ronald was beginning to get a little antsy and concerned if I would actually make it to the test. Finally the tires arrived at midday, so it was time to get the hands dirty. As quick as I could I removed all the wheels chucked them in the back of the team van and shot off down the road to get the new ones fitted. The boys were particularly fast with fitting them up; I think it had something to do with the box of bear I promised them!

By the time I got back to the bus fitted the wheels said our good-byes it was exactly 5pm. We decided to drive until 10pm get 8hrs rest and hit the trail at 6am sharp. 9.30 that night we arrived in Valencia with some 16 hrs behind the wheel non stop, completely nackerd and definitely ready to catch some zzzzz. I gotta say I'm pretty lucky Moodie taught me how to make a proper cuppa; the kettle ran hot all day long.

The great thing was I had the entire day Friday to recover and prepare myself for the two day test which lay ahead.The test went well and I guess by the next time we touch base, Philip Island will have been and gone with hopefully a little better news!

cya